A Place in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum
A Place in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum
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There's a set in place Florida that designed a twelve-foot-substantial monument in the middle of town to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would any person desire to perform that?
Properly, initial off, heroes are tough to come by on this dedicate Florida - the Panhandle capital of scotland- Wausau, property of fewer than 500 people in the center of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an not likely hero to convey the minimum? No one else places the possum using a pedestal. Why don't you Wausau?
Secondly, back 1982, Wausau obtained sick and Sick and tired of staying overlooked from your Florida lists of fun, fairs and festivals. Each and every put in Florida wants a festival. And never just one place in place Florida includes a Possum Festival. Why not Wausau?
If you have not frequented Washington County, you most likely will Assume I'm causeing this being up. When you've got attended Washington County, you can expect to understand - and know It is just a accurate Tale.
Wausau, it turned out, experienced some fairly powerful possum politicians through the early '80s. Here's a few matters they accomplished:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the initial Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led for the developing from the monument along Point out Highway seventy seven in Wausau.
They even acquired The us Congress in advertising the possum. Congress joined the enjoyment by furnishing the cash for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau could have a location to aid its once-a-year Fun Day and Possum Pageant. Showcasing a queen contest and possum auction, among the other things, the Pageant attracts a lot of men and women annually, additionally they like it.
Day out For a lot of educating of Northerners right here. The South's possum is analogous lowly animal you call opossum, (Why use seven letters when 6 will do?) It is a smallish marsupial that lives in trees and exhibits its unpleasant system only at nighttime. This is exactly why, if you find yourself click here while in the right place in Florida, you could hear possum hunters' dogs baying and barking. Treed by pet dogs, the possum 'freezes', so It will probably be uncomplicated seize (or shoot) just one.
An inscription to the monument in the guts of Wausau cites the possum's position in offering 'each fur and food items' in the course of the whole hundreds of years. It goes on to say: 'Their presence listed here has delivered a source of nutritious and flavorful food items in normal moments and possesses been an important aid to human survival a great deal more distress and critical have to have.'
Chuckle if you want. The people today of Wausau will giggle in conjunction with you - even though downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.